The Board of Selectmen last week approved an approximately $385,000 contract with a Ridgefield-based firm for demolition and abatement work at The Playhouse.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Alden Bailey.
The work will involve “selective construction, demolition and abatement services,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
It includes the removal of a chimney and some flooring, abatement from two areas of the Elm Street building and creation of a new elevator shaft, Mann said during the selectmen’s regular meeting, held Jan. 26 at Town Hall and via videoconference.
The work will take about six to eight weeks “while we finalize the design drawings that will go to Building and P&Z [Planning & Zoning],” Mann said.
Funds for the project are in the approved budget, he said.
According to its website, Alden Bailey specializes in “traditional roofing applications” and “is known for our historic restoration and preservation work.” The town has awarded Alden Bailey millions of dollars in contracts in recent months, including $92,000 for minor roof work in Waveny’s public walled garden two weeks ago.
Williams asked Mann and Bill Oestmann, buildings superintendent in the Department of Public Works, how extensive the abatement needs are.
Oestmann said there’s “a lot of asbestos around the piping and old heating system.”
Closed at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and available to a new tenant since later that year, when Bow Tie Cinemas terminated its lease, the Playhouse is getting a new operator in Montclair, N.J. Cinema Lab. The town this year has approved a series of contracts to ready the Playhouse for reopening in 2023—its centennial. According to a press release issued in November, The Playhouse is expected to reopen in the third quarter of 2023.
Moynihan said during last week’s meeting that CinemaLab has raised $2.3 million for the project, and that the movie theater will reopen some time in 2023.
“This project is moving along and we want to keep it moving along by the anniversary year,” he said. “This year, 2023. We will open up in 2023.”